So Seffie suggested that I do a "diary" of our obedience class. This is the first time that a dog obedience class has been offered through our local park district and we all know how hard it is to get something new started. We originally set a minimum limit of 5 participates. We had 3 people sign up through the park district and decided to do the class anyway.
For our first day we took our two of our own dogs (Chief and Gali) and showed people what we hope to teach them to teach their dogs. We showed them some tips and tricks to teach basic positions such as sit, down, heel, etc. We also asked what their goals are and what they hope to get out the next 8 weeks of our classes.
Dorothy and Mack: Dorothy is 73 years old with a 2 year old smooth coat collie rescue named Mack. Mack is a stubborn dog who gets out of doing obedience by going into total avoidance. This dog can open the fridge to get his own food, open the door to let himself in and out, etc. The trick is going to teach him that obedience is not a bad thing and he will get rewarded for good behavior. Mack also does not know (or just refuses) a recall. He will not walk on a leash without dragging her around and refuses to sit or down on the first command. Being unable to control the dog on a flat collar they have moved to a choke chain with no luck. Her goals are to be able to walk her dog on a leash with her dog heeling and to be able to have her dog loose outside while they do chores (they live in the country) so the recall command is extremely important.
Penny and Abigail: Penny is 37 years old with a 22 week old German Shepherd pup named Abigail. Abigail is a very well behaved pup at home with her housemates. Walks well on a leash until she sees another dog or something strange she doesn’t see on a normal basis. Penny does Dachshund rescue and has been to many obedience classes in the past. Her goals are to socialize her dog with other people and other dogs and try to figure out how to get more attention from Abigail.
Krista and Annie: Krista is 36 years old with a rescue dog of unknown age (between 1 and 2 years old) and I have no idea what kind of dog she is. Small with lots of hair. Annie refuses to be housebroken, refuses to be quiet in a crate, jumps on the kids, tries to dominate them, and refuses to heel. Her goals are to make her dog obedient so that she will listen to her children when she is not around and of course continue with crate and house training.
We suggested to Dorothy with such a large dog and her age to invest in a prong collar to stop the pulling during walking. We tried it out tonight with great success. She was able to walk the dog around the park without being drug half to death. The other two have great food drive and will be taught to heel with treats and rewards.
We've also shown them all the correct way to do clicker/treat training to get the dogs attention and teach it that obedience isn't a bad thing you get goodies when you do what you're asked to do. They are to work on that this week and to start teaching the "quiet" command. We will know next Tuesday who did their homework and who didn't!
For our first day we took our two of our own dogs (Chief and Gali) and showed people what we hope to teach them to teach their dogs. We showed them some tips and tricks to teach basic positions such as sit, down, heel, etc. We also asked what their goals are and what they hope to get out the next 8 weeks of our classes.
Dorothy and Mack: Dorothy is 73 years old with a 2 year old smooth coat collie rescue named Mack. Mack is a stubborn dog who gets out of doing obedience by going into total avoidance. This dog can open the fridge to get his own food, open the door to let himself in and out, etc. The trick is going to teach him that obedience is not a bad thing and he will get rewarded for good behavior. Mack also does not know (or just refuses) a recall. He will not walk on a leash without dragging her around and refuses to sit or down on the first command. Being unable to control the dog on a flat collar they have moved to a choke chain with no luck. Her goals are to be able to walk her dog on a leash with her dog heeling and to be able to have her dog loose outside while they do chores (they live in the country) so the recall command is extremely important.
Penny and Abigail: Penny is 37 years old with a 22 week old German Shepherd pup named Abigail. Abigail is a very well behaved pup at home with her housemates. Walks well on a leash until she sees another dog or something strange she doesn’t see on a normal basis. Penny does Dachshund rescue and has been to many obedience classes in the past. Her goals are to socialize her dog with other people and other dogs and try to figure out how to get more attention from Abigail.
Krista and Annie: Krista is 36 years old with a rescue dog of unknown age (between 1 and 2 years old) and I have no idea what kind of dog she is. Small with lots of hair. Annie refuses to be housebroken, refuses to be quiet in a crate, jumps on the kids, tries to dominate them, and refuses to heel. Her goals are to make her dog obedient so that she will listen to her children when she is not around and of course continue with crate and house training.
We suggested to Dorothy with such a large dog and her age to invest in a prong collar to stop the pulling during walking. We tried it out tonight with great success. She was able to walk the dog around the park without being drug half to death. The other two have great food drive and will be taught to heel with treats and rewards.
We've also shown them all the correct way to do clicker/treat training to get the dogs attention and teach it that obedience isn't a bad thing you get goodies when you do what you're asked to do. They are to work on that this week and to start teaching the "quiet" command. We will know next Tuesday who did their homework and who didn't!
